ABSTRACT
The success of Queensland women’s campaign for a vote for justice, a No vote against the introduction of military conscription, was recognised by world leaders. The Women’s Peace Army went into abeyance in 1916, to allow their members to engage fully with the anti-conscription campaign. As in the earlier suffrage campaigns, they sought to lead, educate, and widen participation. Included were women who were anti-conscription, but not necessarily openly anti-war, notably Helen Huxham wife of a senior Labor politician.
In 1917, the labour movement was devastated by Emma Miller’s death. Her work and support for Margaret Thorp was continued by a core group of labour women. There was no split between the Labor Party and the labour movement in Queensland over conscription. Firebrand Kathleen Hotson was invited to Brisbane, and the WPA’s involvement with the radical left movements escalated, especially with the announcement of the second referendum on conscription. Across the nation, during the final years of the war with the Easter Uprising in Ireland and the Russian revolutions, returned soldiers increasingly took up key leadership roles. A Children’s Peace Army was established. Women’s radical activism was being contained, restricted to spheres defined by conventional maternalism.
